The Staffels come to Italy

      On May 19th Taylor's old college room mate, Justin, and his wife Meredith came to visit us in Italy! We picked them up at the airport and headed for Venice the remainder of the day. 

I would say they look pretty good after a long flight over the ocean and hardly any sleep!

It is hard to see, but they were having a sail boat race in Venice that weekend. There were tons of boats at the mouth of the Grand Canal.

Bridge of Sighs.

Longest dreads I have ever seen! Her hair must weigh tons!!

Figuring out where we were going...

Justin and Meredith in front of St. Peter's Basilica.

A gondola traffic jam! 

The Staffels in front of the Rialto Bridge.

This was such a cute street!

We were not sure what was going on here, but whoever was hurt was going to be wheeled out in that little chair. Interesting way to transport a person in an emergency!

The Grand Canal

The next day Taylor had to work, so Justin, Meredith and I went to Verona. We stopped in the little town of Soave on the way. I just love this little walled town!

We headed to Verona in the pouring rain. It rained almost all day…which was a real bummer. We got to Verona and had some lunch and wine at this cool little restaurant and eventually the rain stopped and we were able to get some site seeing in before it started up again.

This was the 3rd largest amphitheater in the Roman world dating back from the first century. They have concerts here, and just recently Justin Beiber performed here. Taylor was upset he didn't get to go. 

This is Juliet's fictional balcony. Although it is a made up story there were two real feuding families, the Montecchi and the Cappellos, which were the models for Shakespeare's Montagues and Capulets. 

I didn't get a great picture of Meredith, but it is a "Verona-must" to take a picture with the statue of Juliet. And if you do it touching her breast, then you will be guaranteed to find a lover. 

Down town in Piazza Erbe.

This stone canopy in the center of the Piazza used to hold the scales where the merchants measure the weight of goods they bought and sold. 

View across the river.

We had a great time showing the Staffels around our area. They left us and headed to Florence and the Cinque Terre for a few days. They returned the next weekend and we all headed up to Germany…but I'll save that for another post. :)